Sketch of Loyalty
by Moon Faery
Summary: Direct sequel to Let Loyalties Lie. Lucius tells Narcissa of Draco’s decisions.


Sketch of Loyalty  
Rating: G  
Series: HP  
Genre: Gen  
Pairings: H/D, LM/NM  
Warnings: Slash, het  
By Moon Faery  
Words: 700

Disclaimer: I don't own HP. You don't own HP. (well, except for you over there-- stop laughing!) We all agree on this, and none of us will sue, ne?

Summary: Post Let Loyalties Lie. Lucius tells Narcissa of Draco's decisions.

Author Notes: Written for hhwritersblock, challenge #005, but really inspired by the lovely folks aboard the SS Guns'n'Handcuffs. You don't have to read Let Loyalties Lie in order to get this, but that's Lucius' part of the story if anyone cares.

_CRASH_

Red and warm sienna pencils scattered, dropped from fingers gone nerveless. Narcissa sat down her sketchbook, current piece forgotten. Storm wind howled its way inside, through the open doors of the main hall, so loud she could hear it all the way in the green room where she kept her art supplies. The door shut and cut off the noise before she was even out of the room. Nonetheless, she gathered her robes around her and hurried to meet the only person it could be.

Lucius had received a letter from Hogwarts only that morning. He hadn't thought to show it to her, but had instead rushed off. She chilled inside to wonder what could cause such a reaction. Usually he told her everything.

When she arrived in the main hall, Lucius had settled into an armchair and was staring pensively at the fireplace, cane dangling from his fingers. Narcissa frowned and waved one of the House Elves over, giving quiet orders for a pot of tea. The little servant vanished, and she swept her robes around her to kneel at her husband's feet quietly, delicately painted nails pale against the dark cloth of his robes.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking up into his eyes, worried at the utter lack of expression. The flagstones of the floor pressed into her knees, making them ache. "Is all well at Hogwarts?"

Lucius was quiet for a long time, one hand combing through her graying blonde hair. She let him think, wondering at the new lines on his brow. They hadn't been there the day before. The House Elf, Minday, returned with the tea and set it on a nearby table, then made herself scarce.

Finally, Lucius sighed and looked at her. "He's not a child any longer, is he?"

The question puzzled her. "What happened at Hogwarts?" she pressed.

"Draco has… taken a lover," Lucius reported, voice soft and blank. "It's Potter."

Something in her gut froze. Visions of her son, her baby, sparkled and crushed themselves before her eyes. "Potter? Harry Potter?" Her husband nodded, still playing with loose locks of her hair. Possibilities, reasons, reactions, fall-outs raced through her mind. '_This changes everything.'_ The thought stayed unsaid. Lucius had undoubtedly already traveled those paths, and she felt no need to retrace them.

"How much time do we have?" she asked instead, proud that her voice remained level.

"A week. They agreed to give us that long."

The fire was no longer warm enough, though she suppressed the urge to shiver. "Heirs?"

"Will be discussed. We may have to… handle the matter ourselves"

Just whens he thought it was over, the dream shattered just a little more. '_I wanted to name his first Alexander,'_ her heart whispered, a broken wail that echoed all the way to her bones.

Pressing her pain away to look at later, she promised herself a chat with Potter sometime soon. It occurred to her that, other than her son's occasional comments, she knew nothing of the boy. That would have to be changed. "Then we don't have much time. Let me clean up, and I'll begin the necessary arrangements."

The firelight turned Lucius' eyes a strange shade of red-gray when he smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I knew I could count on you."

She tipped her cheek to touch the fingers in her hair. "Together to the end."

With a final parting kiss, she stood and went to clean up her supplies.

Her sketchbook waited for her, right where she had left it. It was a study of Draco, as he was would grow to be, done in reds with only the gray of his eyes standing out, tinted ever so slightly blue. The main focus, Draco, was almost complete, but for the first time she noticed a gaping negative space behind him. The complete lack drew notice to the small holes in the work-- holes just the right size to place arms around his waist and hold tight. Her mind's eye traced a figure in the negative, wild hair and laughing eyes, scar faded into the background in its own negative space. All done in that tender blue-toned gray, the exact shade of her baby's eyes. Just by picturing it, the sketch of Draco looked brighter, less flat.

Less a child and more a man.

With shaking hands, she scooped up the fallen red pencils and set them aside and reached for her blue ones.


End file.
